


The Third Day

by cloudyjenn



Series: Outsider [3]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 10:35:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5372189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cloudyjenn/pseuds/cloudyjenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nera lasts to the third day of Magister Pavus' romantic getaway before she goes to see if he's okay.  But first, she meets the Chargers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Third Day

Thankfully, Magister Pavus warned Nera to bring her own amusement.  Waiting around for her master for five days turned out to be surprisingly dull work.  She’d brought two books, one for pleasure and one for study as well as blank papers and her ink pens.  When she had free time, which happened rarely, Nera liked drawing with pens.  A silly frivolous pastime, but one she could not stop herself from enjoying.  

Yet after the second day stuck in her room, even her pens didn’t amuse her anymore and she’d read the entire fiction novel.  An early morning workout in the inn’s courtyard helped ease the boredom, but by nightfall, she felt restless again.

So, against her better judgement, Nera wandered down into the inn’s bar and dining area.  This far out in the middle of nowhere, she’d expected it to be fairly empty, so she was shocked to find it full to bursting with a chattering crowd.  

And there were _elves_.  

Two female elves with their delicate tapered ears and light slim bodies.  Nera prefered men, but she thought them beautiful nonetheless.  She hoped they didn’t catch her staring though.  The last thing Magister Pavus needed was for Nera to draw attention to herself.  

But she still took a seat relatively close to the elves and their friends.  They sat with a group of mostly humans, but Nera spotted an dwarf among them too.  A pretty dark-haired woman stopped at her table and quickly brought her the ale Nera ordered.  As she drank, Nera listened to the group talking.

The main speaker was a young man with short brown hair and an athletic form.  Nera thought him rather handsome.  The others listened to him raptly as he told a story about two people he called ‘Sparkler’ and ‘the chief’.  

“To be honest with you, I still don’t know how the chief found out his birthday.  All I know is that one day Sparkler woke up with about 400 Fereldan redblossoms in his bedroom and that was how the chief found out that Sparkler is _allergic_ to Fereldan redblossoms,” he said to an outburst of laughter.  “I have never even heard some of those curses before and we’re from the same fucking place.”

“Were you there?” another human man asked, his eyes dancing with amusement.

“No, but he was still cursing two hours later and his eyes were as red as fire.  The chief must have figured something out though because I spotted Sparkler sitting in his lap at dinner,” he added with a hint of distaste.  

“Gross,” one of the elves said, but she didn’t actually sounded too disturbed.  More like fondly exasperated.  As if this chief’s fondness for his ‘Sparkler’ was an old and never to be understood attraction.

“I just hope he gets it out of his system for a good long while,” the first man said, shaking his head.  

“Yeah, it’s been particularly shitty this time,” the second man agreed.  "I think six months is his absolute limit before he starts to lose it."

They stayed silent for a moment.  Then the first man sighed.  “I shouldn’t be so hard on him.  It’s got to be rougher being away than he lets on.  And Sparkler...eh.  He’s not so bad.  From afar.”

The second elf snorted.  Nera noticed she was sharpening a long jagged knife with her clever hands.  “He’s a nightmare, but he soothes the beast, so…”  She shrugged.  

The dwarf took a deep drink from his tankard and released a loud belch.  “Can’t make sense of love,” he said wisely.  The first man made a face at the word ‘love’, but he didn’t dispute it.  “Even if it’s about the least convenient choice Chief could have made.”

Nera realized how careful the group was being in avoiding a real name.  ‘Chief’ could be what they usually called this person if he was their leader, but she doubted anyone would go by ‘Sparkler’.  Certainly not someone they all seemed to struggle to understand and accept.  

“I like him,” came the sudden deep growl of another man Nera hadn’t yet noticed.  The group stared at him in abject shock.

“Seriously?  You talk like twice a year and _that’s_ what you choose to say?” The first man asked, eyes wide.  

The quiet man shrugged and sipped his drink.  “Chief likes him.  Good enough for me,” he finally said and then fell silent.

The rest of the group absorbed this message.  

The second man who’d spoken shrugged and nodded.  “Yeah, that’s not a bad point.”

The others made varying degrees of soft agreeing noises.  Nera privately thought this Chief person very lucky to have people that cared so much about him.  She also wondered briefly if...well.  Nera sipped her drink.  She would worry about that possibility later because she didn’t want to get into a bar fight over someone calling her Magister Pavus ‘Sparkler’.  

Their conversation wandered onto other topics and by the time Nera had left for the night, she had a painful bottom lip from biting it all night to stop from laughing.  Their group certainly got into some wild situations.  

The next day, Nera decided she would visit the villa to check on Magister Pavus.  Surely three days was long enough that she had a chance of finding them during a pause in their intimate reunion.  She knew Magister Pavus might be annoyed with her for showing up, but listening to that group had made her feel...Nera didn’t want to name the emotion, but it made her want to see a familiar face and be sure he was safe.

Luckily, she found Magister Pavus out of bed and mostly dressed.   He was sitting outside the villa in the back courtyard, ostensibly reading a book, but really watching the Iron Bull go through combat exercises with some wooden dummies.  The Iron Bull wore nothing aside from a small form fitting pair of blue shorts.  Nera couldn’t help staring at him too.  His physique was both impressive and intimidating.  And what his shorts hid...well, Magister Pavus must be a brave and greedy man.

“I thought you might show up,” Magister Pavus said with a smile.  He didn’t sound angry and his expression was relaxed in a way Nera rarely, if ever, saw.  He wasn’t fully dressed himself, but his stretchy pants and night robe was at least more than the Bull wore.  Nera could not have handled the embarrassment of finding her master naked.

“I wanted to be sure you were safe,” she said.

“I’m always safe with Bull,” he assured her.  

She hummed softly and then eventually took the empty seat to his left.  It was so large and sturdy, she guessed it was for Bull normally.  They both watched Bull spin and attack, flexing his thick muscles and chopping the wooden dummies to bits.  Nera thought she heard Magister Pavus’ breathing hitch a few times, but did not comment on it.

“You have a question,” Magister Pavus finally said.  

Nera glanced at him.  He was always very perceptive.

“Just wondering how you met him,” she confessed.

“He was with the Inquisition,” Magister Pavus explained.  “Sent by the Qunari to spy actually.”  He glanced at her wide shocked eyes and laughed gently.  “Don’t worry, he’s no longer in that business.  They lost him long ago when he chose friendship over their ideals.”

Nera knew there was more to that story, but Magister Pavus’ expression had closed enough that she felt he wouldn’t appreciate her digging for details.  So she went for a lighter question that also burned in her mind.

“What drew you to him?” she asked cautiously.

“You mean aside from mutual lust?” Magister Pavus teased.

Nera blushed red.  Thinking about Magister Pavus having sex was rather like imagining a very dear uncle in bed.  “I didn’t...I don’t…”

He laughed and shook his head.  “Dear Maker, am I a creepy old man now?  I suppose I’ve earned it after all these years.”  Magister Pavus looked so happy that Nera had to chuckle along with him.

“I just meant...what’s he like?” she clarified.

“Hmm, well.  He’s quite loud and bombastic.  Likes crude and just plain bad jokes.  He can be incredibly persistent and annoying…”  Magister Pavus looked at her perplexed expression and laughed again.  “I suppose you’ve noticed how terrible I am at romance?  You’re asking me to describe my own amatus and I can’t...I’m not very good at sharing what I think,” he clarified.  “And that’s why I like Bull.  He’ll tell anyone he meets how much he loves me and how wonderful I am and how beautiful I am.  All very true points, I might add,” he said, tone a touch cheeky.  “I can’t tell you how much that blew my mind when we first met.  Still does, I suppose.”

“Are you good at sharing with Bull?” she asked.

Magister Pavus’ gaze turned so soft and adoring that Nera had to look away.  She didn’t deserve to see that look on his face.

“Yes, I can be quite stupidly sappy when we’re alone.  It’s disgusting and embarrassing.  He loves it, of course,” he added.  

“You love it,” she guessed.

“Hmmm,” was all Magister Pavus would say.

Nera realized how much she’d been digging into Magister Pavus’ emotions and had given little in return.  The thought had her blurting the first private thought that came to mind.  

“I like Elves,” she said.

Magister Pavus blinked and then looked delighted.  “Oh, you _do_?  How perfect!  I shall have to find you one.  Have you ever been with an Elf?”

Nera blushed again, but shook her head firmly.  “I would never approach a slave, ser.  It wouldn’t be proper and I’ve only see free Elves from afar.”

Magister Pavus looked gleeful.  Nera had a feeling he’d somehow find a way to employ an army of Elves from her to choose from.  She almost told him not to do anything horribly embarrassing, but they were interrupted by the Iron Bull approaching, wiping at his face with a towel.

“Hey, it’s your mageling,” he said fondly.  

Nera knew her surprise showed on her face.  Did she really look so young?  

“You’re terrible at nicknames, amatus,” Magister Pavus said.  

“I’m amazing at nicknames, kadan,” Bull countered.  

“Does that mean you came up with ‘Sparkler’?” Nera asked.  “Or was that someone else?”

Bull looked utterly delighted.  “You met my boys?  Excellent!” just as Magister Pavus said, “Ugh, they’re never going to stop with that one.”  Bull sat right onto the ground and looked up at her with intense focus.  

“Tell me _everything_.”

 

By the time Nera realized she'd lost over an hour talking to her master's lively and very amusing amatus, she knew she would never need wonder again what Magister Pavus saw in the man.


End file.
